1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic device such as a robot toy, PDA, a cellular phone, and a video camera, and especially to an electronic device having a touch sensor that detects the approach or touch with one of a human body such as a hand and a finger.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the conventional technique of the electronic device having this kind of touch sensor, there exists the invention, for example, described in the patent article 1.
The above patent article 1 discloses a robot toy with a cover which can be pushed down provided on the top surface of the head, and having a touch sensor or a tact switch in the bottom portion of this cover.
In the robot toy described in the patent article 1, a push of the cover sets the tact switch ON. Then, a mood counter counts up and down according to the presence of a pressure operation of the head and the manner of the pressure operation to be detected by the tact switch, and the feeling level is set based on the counter value of the mood counter. Feeling and mood of the toy can be expressed with voice, eye, and behavior while controlling the voice output means, feeling expression means, and operation means according to the feeling level.
[Patent Article 1]
Japanese Unexamined Published Patent Application No. 2002-66155
In the robot toy described in the above patent article 1, however, there is an increase in the number of the components forming the robot toy as well as an increase in the cost, because the mechanical tact switch, adopted as a touch sensor, requires a cover for improving its operational ability and hiding itself from the outside.
Since this cover does not exist in the original toy model, it may have a defective design. Further, in order to enrich the feeling expression of the robot toy, it is necessary to increase the number of touch sensors. However, too many tact switches provided in the main body of the robot toy spoil the design in the robot toy.